And, it's late and little girls should be in bed at this hour, little
girls should. But Poppa Kent is in the hospital, and Chloe's good at
solving mysteries, and she's not so little, not so little anymore.

She takes the road past the Langs', and whaddya know, that's Lana on
a fence, not (of course not) chewing on a straw, dangling her legs,
looking all of twelve years old.

And Chloe stops, leans out the window "wanna come help out?" and she
doesn't know why she's doing it really, it could be that it's too
late for little girls, it could be, well, that's Lana on that fence
and Chloe has a car and. and.

Lana looks over her shoulder, looking for Aunt Nell, no Aunt Nell and
Chloe doesn't say, she doesn't say, "your Auntie's with Lionel
Luthor, Wednesday nights with Lionel, and you didn't know that did
you?" and no she doesn't say that.

Lana's all happy-clappy and she chews a pink bubble-gum and she blows
a bubble, a big pink bubble-bubble and she gets in and puts a
friendly hand on Chloe's shoulder like a girlpal does (thinks Chloe)
but then she scrunches up her nose scrunch scrunch:

"What's that music, Chloe that's not good music"

That's not girly-girl music that's not

and she turns the knob on the radio, she kills the music she kills
Radiohead dead and she finds something she likes better.

Jon Bon Jovi sings On a Bed of Roses and Chloes doesn't puke she
doesn't puke because Lana's so cute when she sings along to Jon Bon
Jovi.

we spell "cute" Q-U-T-E wrote Lana in a book, once. and drew
bubble-gum hearts around it

They find the crash site just as Jon Bon Jovi ends his song and they
get out and look for Clues, only, well suddenly, Chloe want to look
at cutecute Lana more than anything, and she walks up behind her and
Lana turns and-

She sneezes.

Disgusting, still cute, and they laugh at a doll Lana found and
Lana's pushing past Chloe, much too close, to they reach the car, and
Chloe's hand touches Lana's breast but that's just for part of a
second and then, it's over and Lana honks the horn "you sleeping?
let's go for cocoa and cinnamon buns and I will tell you all my
secrets."

And Chloe wants to hear the secrets, and she wants to ask Lana, she
wants to ask her "do you ever, in the night do you ever, ever think
about girls."

girls like me

And they drive, and Lana's babbling about this and that and her
hands, her fingers play a melody out of tune to the music and out of
tune to the words and out of tune but it's a melody Chloe's heard, in
her dreams at least (she tells herself).

And then Lana turns her head, so fast, and she's all over Chloe, and
Chloe hits the brakes and the car skiddles across the road and stops,
and the engine's still running as Lana Lang is kissing Chloe on the
mouth and Lana's touching Chloe's breast.

Lana puts her tongue in Chloes mouth and she fucks her mouth, her
tongue fucks Chloe, and then, she transfers her bubble-gum to Chloe's
mouth and the taste of cherry is in Chloe's mouth and that, she
thinks (when she can think, later) that's the taste of Lana. Cherry
bubble-gum.

Lana's frenching Chloe and her hand is on Chloe's right breast, and
then her other hand is on Chloe's left breast and it's better than
what Chloe thought it could be, when she was dreaming of this, in her
bedroom at night. Better better better and it's Lana, cherry bubble
Lana.

"I'll give you a pressie," says Lana, and her right hand leaves
Chloe's breast and travels down, and it's on Chloe's stomach and
then, the panties she's got her fingers on Chloe's white cotton
panties and Chloe, new to this, all new, her panties are wet and
Lana's fingers are there, and under, and inside.

Fire. Fire fire fire and girls just wanna have fun, and Chloe can't
think, she can only press against Lana, against her hands and fingers
and come, inside, touch and touch and come, inside, now.

And whatever Lana does at nights, she knows where to go and her
fingers stroke, and when Chloe moans (not like a girly-girl because
girly-girls don't moan but then again that train has left the station
now) Lana stops kissing her and her lips close around one of Chloe's
nipples and when she sucks, and her fingers, one more stroke, and
Chloe comes, it's fast and it's furious and she cries out, a small
cry, almost a girly-girl girl cry.

Two breaths: one, two.

Then Lana sits up and puts her hand through her hair and looks in the
mirror and says "you owe me one, Sullivan," and she doesn't sound so
girly anymore.

"Lana, I-"

"Just drive," and Chloe's legs are still shaking and she has no
voice, her throat's so rough like she forgot to drink, and she turns
the car and drives to Lana's.

Lana gets out.

"You owe me," she says and then she runs inside and Chloe sits in her
car unmoving, until Nell returns and then she drives away.

on the road, road to recovery

And, Gran would say, when you wake up all curled up, like a cat
curled up, you know it's gonna rain before nightfall. Cats, kittens,
all curl up so the rain won't find them, the rain can't.

This is the morning after the night Lana Lang fucked Chloe.

Someone has drawn a pink heart on Lana's locker (happens all the
time, to Lana Lang), and Pete said something about that, and he
laughed, but Chloe can't remember what he said. Has to remind herself
that Lana has a boyfriend and then she has Clark to do whatever it is
that she and Clark do in his barn.

She waits for her, waits for Lana, she has these words for Lana that
she has to say (obsessive-compulsive repetition of words she has to
say) but when Lana turns up at school (late) there is no time for
talking.

Lana's wearing clothes no girly-girl ever wore, long black leather
boots to her knees, and Lana leaves her boyfriend behind and she
walks up to Chloe and she says in a kitten voice:

"You wanna play, Chloe? 'Cause Whitney's not in the game anymore, I
don't think."

And Chloe looks at Whitney, alone in the hallway, and she smiles and
yes, she's in the game. She's in.